Lady Pirates remain unbeaten

Defeat Northwest 11-1

Derrick Parker - PDT Sports Contributor

WHEELERSBURG — The Wheelersburg Lady Pirates are now 7-0 (5-0 SOC) after an 11-1 win coming against the Northwest Lady Mohawks.

After being held scoreless and trailing by a run through the first three innings, the Pirates came out firing in the bottom of the fourth. They managed to hang 10 runs on the scoreboard off seven hits, three walks and an error.

“Northwest really came out energized,” said Wheelersburg Head Coach Teresa Ruby. “It took us a while to catch up, be we finally did in the fourth. Lexi Blair started us off with a strong single up the middle and we started rolling from there. When we can start running the bases we put ourselves in a good position to get scores.”

Starting pitcher Sarah Claxon pitched well for the Pirates giving up only the one run on the day off of four hits and a single walk. She struck out eight batters as well.

“We let our freshman pitch today and I was really pleased with her and the fact that she didn’t get rattled. She threw very well today.”

Wheelersburg remains undefeated during the first portion of the young softball season.

“Besides the weather, I think we are right where we need to be so far,” joked Ruby. “We do need to fine tune some things but I like our progress so far.”

For the Mohawks, Coach Keller sees progress coming from his girls. The bright side of the game was their ability to hold the SOC champion Pirates scoreless for the first three innings and draw first blood in the ballgame.

“We’ve worked the last two years on changing the mindset of these girls,” said Keller. “Ninety percent of the time the errors on the field are mental. We work on that. Anytime you play Wheelersburg, who is an outstanding team, you can be intimidated. We wanted to come in with the mindset that they face us. We just wanted to do our best, we want to compete with ourselves not the other team.”

“We did have a bad inning. But we came right back in the next inning and kept fighting. Those are my girls and I love them for that. It’s hard to come back and fight after an inning like that. That’s all I ask out of them is to not give up. I’m proud of them. We aren’t satisfied, we still have things to work on but I really appreciate their effort.”

Northwest is now 3-7 on the season. They host the Valley Indians on Thursday while Wheelersburg travels to Ashland, Kentucky to participate in a tournament both Friday and Saturday.